Learning more about what I have

It's been a crazy week here. The boys are back in school, I'm back at school, it's back to sports, events & general craziness here.  I'm sitting here on my couch with my Soft Square Dessert Bowl that previously held a little bit of queso dip but is now apprently a fat cat magnet beside me and thinking about the things I learned the hard way this week.  There's so much that we take for granted until for some reason it doesn't work or we don't have it.  Last week we geared up for Earl, the storm that wasn't..  This week we're undoing all we did to prepare for Earl.  I didn't know we could stack all our patio furniture on top of the table.  I didn't remember the lesson about how much I depend on electricity until last night when I lost the power to the outlets in my bedroom and all power to my bathroom, closet and several outlets.  We always think it's there when we flip the switch but it's very frustrating to flip a switch and have nothing happen when you can clearly see the lights on in every other room in the house.  Then the worry sets in about waking up on time in the morning since there's no alarm clock working in the bedroom.  What did we do without cell phones?  I got my first one way back in the dark ages, 1995, and I had a ton of minutes per month-10!!!!  I never used it but flashforward to 2010 and 90% of the time my cell phone's at my side and I'm lost without it.  How will my boys reach me if something happens?  What if a customer has a question and I'm not home?  How about being out with my mother and she wants to go to another department store but doesn't know where the nearest one is to where we are? Take away that phone that 15 years ago I never used and I am lost.  There was a time when things were simpler.  When I saw my neighbors in person instead of waving as we drive by or talking on Facebook (another thing I can no longer do without!) When the things I bought were most likely made here, in America, not in a foreign land that I've never seen. It's time for me to take a step back from life and appreciate all that I have and not let all the things that don't matter get too important.  Maybe that's something we all should do more than just on the fourth Thursday of November.